Training for 10/31/13

Happy Halloween!

This morning, I did one last 3-miler on the road with Pepper. It was an awesome morning for a run here, and Pepper took a stick with him that was already in our yard after he brought it home from a run a couple of days ago, so he was moving pretty quick the whole way.

And with that, I’m all set for Indy in two days!

I’m flying to Indy tomorrow morning with my friend Allison. We’ll meet about 10 or so more people out there. We’ll all do packet pick-up tomorrow afternoon (found out today my bib number is 5621), eat an early dinner and go to bed early.

Our hotel is close to the start/finish line, and it’s an 8 a.m. start, so I don’t think I’ll be getting up too early. After I’m done with the half, I’ll be hanging out while we wait for the full marathoners to finish. Saturday night should be a lot of fun. Allison’s birthday is Sunday, so we’re celebrating. The time rolls back an hour that night, so we’ll get to celebrate extra hard. And then we’ll fly home Sunday.

Since today is also the last day of the month, I must do my October summary.

Mileage:

• Week 1 (Oct. 1-5): 8.5 miles
• Week 2 (Oct. 6-12): 18
• Week 3 (Oct. 13-19): 20.8
• Week 4 (Oct. 20-26): 23
• Week 5 (Oct. 27-31): 10.5

Total: 80.8 miles

Another bummer mileage month, but, on the bright side, it’s still more than I ran in September, and the numbers came up as the month progressed, instead of starting high and crashing.

As far as racing went, I did that “5K” that was only 2.6 miles at the beer festival, and then I ran that horrible 10-miler last weekend. So, not a very strong month by that measure haha.

Looking ahead to November, obviously I have a half marathon in Indy in two days. After that, I’ll decide what I want to shoot for in the Rehoboth half in a month, and plot out my training accordingly. I also want to do the Ravens vs. Steelers 5K in Ocean City on Nov. 23 — we have to defend the Ravens’ title — and the Huffin’ for Pumpkin Pie race we always do the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Training for 10/30/13

This morning, I did my strength training upstairs, including ab exercises, push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and weights, and then I did some barefoot exercises and stretching downstairs. No running today.

I’ll do one more short run with Pepper tomorrow, and that’ll be it for my “training” for the Indy Monumental Half Marathon on Saturday morning. I really don’t have a goal time for this race. When I first registered for the full, I put down 3:30 for my predicted finish. When I dropped to the half, they just cut that in half to 1:45, so I assume I’ll be placed in a corral based on that time. I guess I’ll start there and see how it goes.

Training for 10/29/13

Yesterday, I did all my strength training — ab exercises, push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and weights — and then I took Pepper out for an easy 3-miler on the road.

It was a perfect fall evening for a run, except for one detail: The gnats.

They’re cutting all the soybean fields around here, and the gnats are just horrendous right now. Pepper and I were running through a solid cloud of them just about the entire way on that out-and-back route. He didn’t seem nearly as bothered by it as I was. The whole time, I was using my free hand to either wave them away or wipe them out of my eyes and nose, and I kept having to spit them out. I was completely coated in them when I got home, so I got right in the shower.

Today, I thought about driving into town and doing a few 400s on the track. I didn’t feel like taking the time to drive there and back though, and I didn’t want to leave Pepper alone any more than I had to, so instead I just did the 4.5-mile loop with him, and let him set the pace.

As is usually the case, he started out a little pokey and then picked up speed as we went along. We wound up running the whole loop in 34:28, a 7:40/mile overall average. We hit a couple gnat swarms, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as yesterday evening.

Training for 10/28/13

Friday was a rest day. It was also my friend Wendy’s 30^th birthday. Her younger sister wanted to take her out to Fager’s Island in Ocean City to celebrate and invited all of Wendy’s friends. TK, Julie and I went, and we were also joined by Wendy’s older sister. The six of us had dinner in Seaford first, and then went straight to Ocean City. We rented a hotel room on 61^st Street, a short walk from Fager’s.

We’d made these plans a few weeks ago, long before I got the bright idea to sign up for the Seaside 10-mile race on the boardwalk in Ocean City the very next morning. Even though I always have a great time at Fager’s, for some reason I didn’t think this would mess me up for my first double-digit run in more than a month and a half.

Well, I had another great time at Fager’s. They always have a DJ on one side and a live cover band on the other. Except for the band’s set breaks, we stayed on their side the whole night, drinking and dancing our butts off. I was trying to be good — I switched from the craft beers I prefer to Budweiser, my light beer — but I also had a couple of shots.

TK was going to run the 5K that started 15 minutes after the 10-miler, so she and I left Fager’s around 12:30 a.m. I crashed as soon as I got back to the hotel, and didn’t wake up when the other four came back an hour or so later.

The race didn’t start until 9 a.m., and we were only a few miles from the start line at the inlet, so luckily we didn’t have to wake up too early. It still hurt when TK’s phone alarm started playing the most annoyingly cheerful little tune at 7:30 a.m. We hit snooze a couple of times before we rolled out of bed and reluctantly got dressed, while everyone else told us we were morons for trying to run after our night out. If I hadn’t paid in advance, I probably would have skipped this race.

I was really tired and a little hungover. I also hadn’t eaten anything since dinner the night before, and there was nothing to eat in the room except for some M&Ms and cheese balls Julie brought. TK and I each took a bottle of water and headed out.

It was a beautiful morning for a run in Ocean City – clear and sunny, chilly but not too cold and not that windy yet, which doesn’t happen often right there on the coast.

When we left the hotel, we saw a roads crew on the other side of the highway, setting up cones. It dawned on me they were probably marking the race course. I was going to have to run all the way here from the inlet and back? Gross.

We got to the inlet and had our race packets within a couple of minutes. I pulled off my sweats, tied the timing chip to my shoe, pinned on my bib and tried to use the bathroom before the start.

I knew I could run 10 miles, no matter how little sleep I’d gotten, how little food I’d eaten or how much beer I’d drank the night before. My biggest worry going into the race was my digestive system. It’s fickle on a good day, and this was not a good day.

I managed to get a little out before the race started, but I just knew I was going to have trouble. There was nothing more I could do about it though, so I got in the start pack and took off with everyone else.

The race started in the inlet parking lot, did a loop around it, ran backwards through the finish line and then headed north, up and around the pier and finally onto the boardwalk.

The first couple of miles kinda sucked. I felt OK, and wasn’t pushing the pace at all, but I really just didn’t feel like running. I started to feel a couple of little cramps coming on, in my shoulders mostly, probably due to dehydration.

We passed the first mile marker. I’d forgotten to pack my running watch, so I was hoping to hear someone near me yell out the split to a running partner or something. No luck. I had no idea how fast I was running.

Sometime in the second mile, we hit the first water stop. I walked a couple of seconds to down an entire cup of water. When I started running again, the cramping in my shoulders started to subside. We hit a total of five water stops in the race, and I did the same every time. I didn’t have any more trouble with side stitches or cramping.

By the time we got to the end of the boardwalk at 28^th Street, I felt pretty good. I wasn’t running too fast, but I was comfortable.

Right after we left the boardwalk, we ran on a street that went behind a Dunkin Donuts. The smell of delicious donuts filled the air. I was running right behind these two identically-dressed girls who were clearly running together. They both had ear buds in though and couldn’t hear each other, which led to this exchange:

Girl 1: Do you need your inhaler?

Girl 2: DONUTS??!!

End of conversation.

(This made me laugh, but when I told Clark this story yesterday, he gave me a blank look and said, “I guess you had to be there.”)

Anyway…

We followed that side street about five blocks, and then we made a turn onto Coastal Highway for the rest of the way until the turnaround. I was still humming along. I hadn’t heard a peep from my digestive system the whole way, and was starting to feel hopeful I was going to get lucky.

This was, of course, when I first felt some rumblings. We passed four miles, and I realized I hadn’t seen a single port-o-potty, and most of the buildings on our side of the highway were either condos or hotels that I couldn’t be sure had a public bathroom or were businesses that were closed.

Sometime in the next mile, the leader passed me on his way back to the finish line. It was Enos, clicking off sub-6-minute miles with a smile on his face of course!

I ran past our hotel at 61^st Street. I wondered if anyone was still in our room who could let me in to use the bathroom. If it hadn’t been on the opposite side of the highway, I probably would have checked.

We made it to the turnaround at the halfway point at 69^th Street. I took a cup of water at the stop and then turned a corner to see the two most beautiful port-o-potties I’d ever laid eyes on. Better yet, one was open!

I will not go into detail here. I don’t know how long I was in there, but it felt like an eternity. I felt so bad for a couple of minutes in there, I seriously thought about just asking the volunteers at the water stop to radio for someone to come pick me up.

I was probably in there a solid five minutes, just listening to people run by, before I finally felt like I could run another five miles.

I felt OK once I started running again. The wind had picked up slightly and was in our face on the way back, but it really wasn’t bad at all.

The runners were farther apart on the way back. I saw the last runner in the race on her way to the turnaround when I was at about mile 6, I think.

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. I still felt fine running as far as my legs were concerned. I didn’t feel like I was pushing at all, but if I tried to run any faster, my stomach would let me know.

I tried to pick it up a little in the last mile. We turned off the boardwalk and ran back up and around the pier, and then around the parking lot. On the very last turn before the finish, there was someone dressed up like the Grim Reaper holding a sign that said “The end is near” haha. Someone does that at mile 20 of the Marine Corps Marathon every year, but I completely missed it the year I ran it because I was so miserable by that point, so I was glad I’d noticed this Grim Reaper.

The finish clock read 1:30:30-something as I crossed. As soon as I finished, the first volunteer who was taking bib tags asked me if I felt OK. I guess I looked rougher than I thought!

I told him I was fine and found a chair to sit on so I could remove my timing chip, which was not disposable. TK found me, and we went straight to her car and left. Neither of us felt much like hanging around.

We’d gotten tickets for two free beers each after the race, and we didn’t even want them! I think it was Bud Light anyway, so, no loss.

We stopped at a different Dunkin Donuts on the way home than the one I’d passed in the race, and I got a pumpkin cake donut, my first bite of food in hours. It really hit the spot!

They posted the results online later. My official time was 1:30:36, a 9:04/mile pace, and my slowest 10-mile race. I figure I had to stop for about five minutes at the halfway point, so I probably ran closer to 1:25, an 8:30/mile pace, which I was more than OK with, all things considered.

I was 18^th of 49 in the F 30-39 age group and 130^th out of 270 total finishers.

It really was a nice event though. I’ll have to run it another year, and wait until the night after to go out.

The rest of Saturday, Clark and I just lazed about. I needed a nap before a bonfire we’d been invited to that night. I don’t think I ever really fell asleep though.

We weren’t sure if there would be food at the bonfire, so we went out to dinner in Salisbury first. Then we came home to get ready for the party — Clark put on his mullet wig, and I made up my face to look dead. I had a prosthetic exit wound that I stuck on my cheek.

This picture was taken when we got home, after I’d rubbed off half the makeup, but this is what I looked like:

I believe this is also how I looked when I finished the race that morning.

At the bonfire, Mike asked me what I was, and I said I was just dead. He said, “Oh, so you’re Bobby Labonte’s career!” So mean! But I admit I laughed.

We also took Pepper with us. Since it was below 60 degrees outside, he had to wear his dork jacket. There were a lot of people there who’d never seen Pepper, let alone in his little red form-fitting coat, and I heard a lot of people say “What the hell just ran by? Looked like a dog in an Under Armour shirt!”

Sunday morning, I felt fine, once I finally got up at 11:30. My legs were not at all sore, which makes me think I’ll be fine for the half marathon in Indy this coming Saturday. Luckily, we don’t have plans to party until Saturday night!

I didn’t do anything Sunday, other than sit on the couch and watch the race. I was pretty worried about Martinsville. Jimmie stupid Johnson just took the points lead by four last week. He typically runs very well at Martinsville, while the only other guy with a real shot, Matt Kenseth, does not. I was afraid Johnson would come out of Martinsville with a much larger points lead. Well, Johnson still has the lead, but he’s tied with Kenseth, after Kenseth finished second and led the most laps yesterday, while Johnson was fifth. Three more races to settle this thing. I really wish Johnson didn’t have a shot!

Today, I’ll do my strength training and take Pepper for a short run. I don’t really have a plan for the rest of the week. I should be tapering for Indy, but I don’t really have anywhere to taper from. It’s not like this is a goal race for me anyway; I’m just running it at this point so the entry fee and plane tickets don’t go to waste, and to hang out with everyone else.

Training for 10/24/13

Damn, my legs are killing me!

When I did my strength training yesterday morning, I did a couple of leg exercises I hadn’t done in a while, traveling lunges and these horrible things called Bulgarian split squats. I could tell as soon as I’d finished that workout my quads and butt in particular were going to be feeling that.

When I got home from work last night, Clark was running late again, so after I fed Pepper and let him use the bathroom, I put him back in the utility room, cranked up my iPod so I couldn’t hear his mournful howling and took off for the 5.5 miles I’d been meaning to run since Tuesday morning.

It was still light enough out I thought I’d be home before I needed the headlamp. I did wear my glow in the dark shoes though.

The light was fading faster than I expected though; I should have brought that headlamp. About a mile from home, I ran into Al, who wasn’t out walking, but rather was in his yard with his two large, unleashed dogs. Both dogs came charging toward me as soon as they spotted me, so I stopped running.

Of course, since he wasn’t doing his own workout, Al wanted to talk. He remembered I had a marathon coming up. I told him about how I’d injured my foot and had to take off so long I’d dropped to the half.

I expected to hear some more words of wisdom about how he’d ruined his own knees because of running (true story — he’s mentioned this theory several times), but instead he told me this weird story about how he met online a woman from New Jersey, who met him in Lewes this summer. Since they were at the beach, she was, understandably enough, wearing a swimsuit. He went on and on about how great she looked from 30 years of weight lifting and Zumba. I was kinda nodding my head, trying to hurry him along, as the light was fading fast, and wondering where this was going.

He finally got to the point of the story: “So that’s what you have to look forward to when you’re 50, if you keep it up!”

Haha, yeah… ick. I said something about how dark it was getting and went on my way.

I did some stretching when I got home, but I could tell my legs were already tightening up. Which is sad, because I’d have been doing strength training immediately followed by 5.5 miles as my “easy” days, had I been able to stick with my marathon training plan.

It usually takes about 24 hours for muscle soreness to really set in, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when I woke up this morning and my quads and butt felt like someone had beaten them with a baseball bat.

I still wanted to run again though. I won’t be able to do it tonight, and I’d rather not run at all tomorrow, since I’ve got that 10-mile race Saturday morning.

It was pretty chilly out again. I waited long enough that it warmed up enough so that Pepper didn’t need his dork jacket, and I could get away with just one long-sleeved top, capri-length tights and gloves.

Once I got moving, my legs really didn’t feel that bad. I could tell they were sore, but it was bearable. We did the 4.5-mile loop. I did some more stretching when we got home.

Training for 10/23/13

Last night, I planned on running when I got home. I fed Pepper and waited for Clark, so I wouldn’t have to take Pepper with me or leave him home alone again after being there all day.

Unfortunately, Clark got hung up at work, and by the time he got home, “Wheel of Fortune” was about to start. Of course I had to watch that. When that was over, it was officially too late to detach myself from the couch, so, other than making dinner, that’s where I stayed the rest of the night.

I thought about running this morning, but it was pouring outside. I checked the weather, and it’s supposed to clear up by the time I get home this evening.

So I did strength training this morning instead — ab exercises, push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and weights, followed by some stretching. I will run when I get home tonight, whether I have to leave Pepper home again or not.

Training for 10/22/13

I don’t have much to report today, because I haven’t done anything yet. I set my alarm for 6 a.m., fully intending to run before my usual Tuesday morning meeting, but it was just so dark out there when the alarm went off. Plus I was pretty sure it’d be as cold out as it was yesterday morning, and I don’t feel like dealing with that yet.

So I killed the alarm and went back to sleep. I got up a half hour later to feed Pepper. By then, it was starting to lighten up just a bit outside, and when I let him out after he ate, I found out it wasn’t nearly as cold as I’d expected. Probably would have been a nice morning for a run!

Oh well. I don’t have any late assignments today, so I’ll run when I get home. You know, when it’ll probably be getting dark again.

Training for 10/21/13

Last Friday, I took a complete rest day, so I didn’t have anything to post. However, I had a couple of pretty encouraging runs over the weekend!

Saturday morning, I went out for a lap around the 8.2-mile loop. For the first mile, I was wishing I’d worn long sleeves instead of short, and my feet were practically numb. (It wasn’t even that chilly; I’m just that big of a baby when it comes to being cold.) By the time I hit the 1.5-mile point, I was very comfortable in my short-sleeved shirt and I could feel my feet again.

The rest of the run went pretty well. It was 2.7 miles farther than I’d run in the previous six weeks, so I was really happy I never felt the need for a walk break (since I didn’t have Pepper with me to make me run much faster than is comfortable for me right now.) I finished the loop in 1:11 on the dot, an 8:39/mile pace.

I’m sure I’ll be able to finish the Seaside 10-Miler this coming Saturday, and the half marathon in Indy the Saturday after. They won’t be fast, but they’ll get done.

I did some stretching, and then I spent the afternoon getting the grocery shopping done at Walmart, where everyone seemed to hate their life even more than usual, baking another batch of pumpkin muffins and cleaning up the kitchen. In the evening, Clark and I went to Kara’s house for my youngest nephew’s 10th birthday party.

Sunday morning, I took Pepper to the trail for a run around our 3-mile loop. It’s been a while since I ran two consecutive days, but my foot felt 100 percent fine after Saturday’s run.

The last time I took Pepper to the trail, it was noon on a hot day, and he was not in a mood to run. We poked along for most of that run. Yesterday, it was about 30 degrees cooler.

At first, Pepper was just as pokey as he was two weeks ago. He just wanted to sniff and pee on everything. There was a point, about a half-mile into the run, that he started leaping on me and refusing to run any farther. He does that sometimes when I try to take him on the road and he doesn’t want to run, but he’s never done that at the trail before. It was weird.

I finally got him to run forward again, and it was like he’d decided if I wasn’t going to take him back to the car the way we’d come in, he was going to get through the rest of the run as quickly as possible. He was flying, and he never let up.

I kept up with him though. I was really happy to see the end of that run!

That put me at 11.2 miles for the weekend, and 21 for the week. My foot also feels like it’s completely back to normal. I think it’s safe to say that injury is finally behind me.

Yesterday afternoon, I went to the Autumn Wine Festival in Salisbury with my mom, sister and grandmother. We finally had a nice day for an outdoor drinking event. I’m still not nearly as big a fan of wine as I am of beer, but I’m getting an idea of what I like. I used to go for sweet, fruity dessert wines, but yesterday, they all tasted like cough syrup to me. I seem to like dry reds now.

Today, I’m going to do my strength training — abs, push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and weights — and then go out for a short bike ride. I was going to do it this morning, but it got down around 40 last night, so it was too cold for me upstairs haha. I pulled out my laptop and got some stuff done for work instead, and I’ll do my workout sometime after lunch, when the temperature is closer to my acceptable range.

Training for 10/17/13

This morning, I took Pepper with me for a lap around the 5.5-mile loop. It’s pretty warm here for late October, not that I’m complaining.

The first mile was a little slow. Pepper kept stopping to pee on things, and then to take a giant dump. I don’t mind waiting for that, since that means that much less dog crap one of us might have to clean up later. I think we passed the first mile marker in a little more than 8:10.

We got rolling after Pepper got all that out of his system. Honestly, we weren’t really running that fast — about 7:45/mile — but it felt like a freaking tempo run to me right now. A mile and a half into it, I stopped to take off my tank top, which I then kept balled up in my hand to wipe off all the sweat pouring out of my face. I was dying!

I was determined to keep up with the little gray dog trotting along in front of me like it was a stroll in the park though. A couple of times, I had to slow him to a walk to catch my breath, but the look of disdain he’d shoot me over his shoulder was enough to get me going again haha.

I figure we ran 5.4 miles of the 5.5-mile loop. I timed it at 42:17, a 7:48/mile overall average pace.

I was annoyed with myself for needing those walk breaks, but then I remembered the last time I ran with Pepper on the road — we did two miles and I had to take a break halfway through. I may still be slow compared to myself before I had to take that time off, but I’m getting better.

Yesterday, I registered for the Seaside 10 Miler, next Saturday morning on the boardwalk in Ocean City. I realized yesterday morning I only had two more weekends before this half marathon I’m supposed to be running, which means only two more “long runs.” I’ll do 7 or 8 miles this weekend, and then the 10-mile race next weekend.

It’s been two and a half years since I ran my only 10-miler. Under normal circumstances, my 1:17 (7:45/mile pace) PR would be toast, but as I proved today, I’m just not in shape to beat that right now. I believe that’s my oldest PR, and it looks like it’s going to live on!

Training for 10/16/13

Last night, I came home to an unpleasant surprise. Pepper had been hard at work in the utility room all day, first spreading the water from his bowl over the entire floor, then mixing up all the dirt on the floor to create a huge shallow mud puddle and finally just taking a big nasty dump in the middle of it.

It took an entire roll of paper towels to clean up. The whole time, Pepper stared at me from the other side of the screen door and whined because he couldn’t figure out why I’d banished him outside.

When Clark got home a little while later, I went for my run. It wasn’t dark yet, but it was getting there, so I wore my glow-in-the-dark shoes and took my headlamp with me.

I did a lap around the 4.5-mile loop, turning the headlamp on about a mile into the run, mostly so drivers could see me. By the 3-mile mark, I needed the light to see where I was going.

I wasn’t mad about the utility room anymore by the time I got back home. I even let Pepper snuggle up to me later while we were watching TV.

This morning, I did my strength training upstairs, including ab exercises, push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and weights, which I didn’t drop on my toes today. Then I did a lap around the 4.5-mile loop, this time on the bike.

When I got back home, I did some barefoot exercises and stretching to finish up.